Longreads

Howard Ashman in 1977. Archival photos courtesy of Kyle Rennick. The first week of November 1989, filmmakers and executives from the Walt Disney Company gathered in a crowded room in Disney World in…

WHY IT’S BAD: It’s an known excitotoxin, which is a neurotoxic chemical additive shown to harm nerve cells— overexciting them, sometimes to the point of cell death. Regularly…

Gargoyle atop Notre Dame; from Yvon s Paris , a collection of postcard views of Paris taken in the early twentieth century by the photographer known as Yvon. The book has been published by Norton,…

Peter Neufeld is the co-director and one of the two founders of the Innocence Project – the organization I mentioned earlier that uses DNA evidence to overturn wrongful convictions. In addition to trying to free innocent people from prison, he and his colleagues work to improve criminal justice procedures so that fewer mistaken incarcerations occur in the first place. This means Neufeld spends a lot of time telling people that they’re wrong, or that the way they do their work is unjust and dangerously error-prone. As you might imagine, dealing with denial is a de facto part of his job description. When I met Neufeld in his offices in lower Manhattan, one of the first things he did was walk me through the many different stages of denial he routinely encounters. He was quick to point out that not everyone goes through all these stages, or even through any of them: many people working in law enforcement support the work of the Innocence Project and cooperate fully in its efforts to free the wrongfully convicted.

As Don't Ask Don't Tell comes to an end, interviews with dozens of gay servicemen about their experience. Air Force #3: "I've had three deployments [while] with the same person. Every time it's been 'All right, see you later.' All the spouses get together, do stu. He's just there by himself, fending for himself." Marines #2: "The relationship lasted for about four years, but I always felt like I was disrespecting him, to have to pretend he didn't exist when I went to work. When I got deployed, he was there with my family when I left. It kind of sucked—to shake his hand and a little pat on the back and 'I'll see you when I see you' kind of thing. And when you're getting ready to come back, the spouses were getting classes—here's how you welcome your Marine back into the family—and my boyfriend didn't get any of that."